Continuous and automatic conveyors are known in the prior art including conveyors for flowable aggregates and solids. Generally speaking, the prior art weighing conveyors are large industrial installations which include sophisticated and costly components, either electrical or mechanical in nature. Because of their high cost, the prior art devices are not suitable for use by farmers or in small industrial operations where the more expensive equipment cannot be justified economically. Some examples of the known patented prior art are contained in the following U.S. Pat. Nos: 1,032,183; 3,070,214; 1,751,898; 3,339,650; 2,630,312; 3,478,830; 2,882,036; 3,718,197.
With the above drawbacks of the prior art in mind, it is the objective of this invention to satisfy the need of the art for a wholly practical and reliable continuous automatic weighing conveyor for flowable solids which is particularly useful to farmers, and also finding utility in light industry where the heavier and much more costly equipment cannot be utilized.
A further object is to provide a weighing conveyor which is virtually free of the necessity for adjustment once properly set up, and which can have its capacity increased merely by increasing the speed of the drive unit so as to operate the material conveyor at an increased rate.
Another object is to provide a continuous weighing conveyor which is not sensitive to belt slippage and which can operate in conjunction with either an electrical or mechanical counter for handling a wide range of dry flowable solids, such as silage, grain, sand, coal or the like. The length of the conveyor can be changed to meet the needs of a particular application, as will be made clear during the course of the following description.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent in the detailed description of this application.